SAN ANTONIO — At a point when some are settling into retirement, playwright Gregg Barrios is preparing for his New York debut.

Barrios, who is in his mid-70s, is heading to the Big Apple this week to see a pared-down staging of his play “I-DJ.” The show, which the Overtime Theater premiered in 2012, is one of 31 plays being staged in the Frigid New York fringe festival, which runs Wednesday through March 9.

“It's what I wanted to happen,” Barrios said of the show being staged in New York. “It's been wonderful to revisit it in a different form.”

The play follows a gay Chicano DJ named Warren Peace as he looks back on the music and events that helped shape him. The far-reaching piece weaves Warren's personal story with the history of A&M Records; it also touches on the AIDS crisis, identity politics and “Hamlet,” among other things.

The show had to be trimmed down to an hour. It's also being staged without the multimedia elements that were part of the Overtime production.

“This is going to be 'I-DJ' unplugged,” Barrios said.

Rick Sanchez, who played the lead the first time around, is reprising his performance for the show.

Sanchez, who has appeared in shows for a variety of companies, also works for The Playhouse San Antonio as brand manager;

And Wulff appeared in Classic Theatre's “Proof.”

“I look at it as a representation of San Antonio theater, and an opportunity to do something that shows we do have a lot of talent here,” Hinojosa said. “And we have the opportunity to take Gregg's play out of San Antonio and have New York audiences see it.”

Most of the shows in the festival originated in New York. Presenters are expected to do their own marketing, Barrios said. The payoff to that is that they also get to keep 100 percent of the box office.

He sees “I-DJ” fitting in well with the larger theater landscape in New York right now. The A&M Records thread makes it compatible with “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” which opened last month on Broadway, and with “What's It All About? Burt Bacharach Reimagined,” which has been playing off-Broadway.

“What serendipity is that?” Barrios said. “To me, that's a sign we're on the right track.”

“I-DJ” is not the only project he's working on. He's writing a follow-up to “Rancho Pancho,” his play about the little-known relationship between Tennessee Williams and Texan Pancho Rodriguez. The new piece, titled “Tennessee, Mon Amour,” was commissioned by the Provincetown Tennessee William Theater Festival, Barrios said. Classic's staging of “Rancho Pancho” played there in 2008.

He's also working on a play based on the life of stripper Candy Barr, among other projects.

Barrios said he's hoping those works and “I-DJ” will help shine a light on San Antonio's theater scene.

“The talent we have here is so amazing, but all the blushing honors go to Austin and Dallas,” he said. “I'm appreciative of all the opportunities I've had here.”